The Why

Wordsmiths Books owner Zach Steele answers the tough questions regarding why he’s asking for help, as a for-profit business, to keep Wordsmiths’ doors open.

Kindle Watch

The media has been abuzz this past week over reports (not from Amazon) that about 240,000 Kindles have been sold in the US.  Portfolio Magazine does the math and wonders if the target audience for the devices has already been reached:

The Kindle is not going to make a reader out of a nonreader. Few will say, “Gee, reading books and magazines was prohibitively difficult before, but now that there’s a $359 electronic reader available, I’m going to start!”

Important: Read Me

Well this sucks.

Wordsmiths Books, our favorite independent bookstore here in the Atlanta area, is in trouble.  Owner Zach Steele describes the situation at the Wordsmiths site:

The fact is that Wordsmiths Books is, as an idea and in execution, a great bookstore and it can be so much more given the chance. We are not fighting declining sales, nor are we fighting customer apathy, or even a lagging book market. We are fighting only the debt created by starting in the wrong location.

Things appeared to be turning the corner for The ‘smiths gang until The Unfortunate Book Event upset the entire cash flow situation.  Now Wordsmiths is making a direct appeal for donations from the Atlanta literary community (and beyond) to help right the ship before it’s too late.

Wordsmiths, in business for less than two years, has been instrumental in helping to create the lit scene that we all deserve here in Atlanta.  No one in this town works harder to get authors in front of a crowd than the gang at Wordsmiths.  No one.  Their readings are always an event that may also feature local bands, national indie musicians, free hairpieces, local chefs, contests, prom backdrops, cupcakes, and – well, you never really know what else may happen.  You can rest assured that an evening at a Wordsmiths reading is never going be boring.  How good is Wordsmiths programming?  New York Times-worthy.  Don’t take my word for it.  Check out Wordsmiths’ Flickr photostream.  Then remind yourself that all of that action is taking place in a bookstore.

It needs to be said: Wordsmiths takes creating and nurturing a local literary scene seriously.  For one thing, they’ve helped this blog tremendously.  After working together successfully on a few reading events (like Brock Clarke’s reading of An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England with musical guests Sealions – presented with co-hosts The Wren’s Nest),  Wordsmiths helped to get a Baby Got Books Reading Series off the ground.  Check this out:

Baby Got Books Reading Series, Vol. 1:  Rob Sheffield author of Love is a Mix Tape with musical guests The Swear – bonus points for helping me to arrange an interview with Rob Sheffield

Baby Got Books Reading Series, Vol. 2:  Hilary Jordan author of the Bellweather Prize-winning Mudbound with musical guests The Wayne Fishell Experiment AND Hope for Agoldensummer

Baby Got Books Reading Series, Vol. 3:  Steven Hall author of the BGB favorite The Raw Shark Texts with musical guests Blue Screen Love Scene – this may be the high point of the blog, frankly…

Those are events, people.  None of those would have happened without Wordsmiths. They have helped to connect me with authors, publishers, and publicity folks that I would not have had access to otherwise.  Every once in while a book will show up in my mailbox with a note that says, “Russ from Wordsmiths said I had to mail you a copy of this. Enjoy.”   That’s full service.

In addition to bringing top shelf authors to town and helping out area bloggers, Wordsmiths has also helped to get musicians in front of new audiences.  For example, I don’t think that I would have heard any of the bands that I just mentioned had they not been playing in the bookstore. How often do you hear that sentence?

Wordsmiths has also brought in some noteworthy national musicians.  Last year the critically praised St. Vincent released her CD at Wordsmiths.  It went on to be named to many year-end “best of” lists.  A few months later, My Brightest Diamond graced the stage (there’s even video proof).  Canadian violin-pop virtuoso Final Fantasy also played to an enthusiastic audience at Wordsmiths.

Then there are the poetry groups, play-writing groups, book clubs, storytellers, open mic-ers, civic groups, etc. that Wordsmiths hosts with open arms.

I love what Wordsmiths is all about.  I think that they have hit upon the winning formula for selling books in the digital age while also creating a literary community.  They’ve made going to the bookstore cool again.  Bottom line: there is always something happening (or about to happen) at Wordsmiths.  I’m sure that we’ll all survive if Wordsmiths disappears from our landscape – but we’ll all be the poorer for it.

Go hit the Donate! button

Thirteen

Black Man by Richard Morgan beat BGB favorite The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall (and others) to win the Arthur C. Clarke Award (UK) this year.  I had read two of Morgan’s previous novels, Altered Carbon and  Broken Angels.  I liked what I had read so far.  His books are action packed and focus on the all too believable imagined future of  designer drugs, genetic manipulation, and elective surgeries.  It seemed a safe bet that his new, prize-winning novel might make for an enjoyable summer read.  The only problem was that the title was not available in the US.  Or so it seemed.

I’ve mentioned this before, but Black Man is inexplicably titled Thirteen in the US.  I’m still not sure why Morgan’s US publishers felt the need to change the title, especially having now read the book.  While either title is reasonably applicable to the story, one certainly seems to be more provocative than the other.  I’d argue that the more provocative title more aptly sums up the novel’s themes, too.

Both titles refer to the novel’s main character, Carl Marsalis, a genetic ” variant thirteen”, who also happens to be black.  Thirteens are genetically modified humans created as military experiments to create the ultimate combat soldiers.  When the experiments got out of control, the programs were canceled and the thirteens imprisoned and/or hunted and exterminated.   Carl has rokered a deal to become a hunter of thirteens.

In this imagined future, the U.S. has dissolved into a number of smaller independent nations through external pressure from China.   The author is British, and some of these divisions seem arbitrary and based on stereotypes.  The south and mid-west, for example, make up what is now artlessly called “Jesus Land” – the country.  Really?

There are some intriguing speculative elements in the novel.  Mars has been colonized, and the psychological effects of living in an environment alien to human experience is explored.  Nanotechnology is used to create elevators that lift cargo in and out of Earth’s atmosphere to space vehicle docking stations.  The author also presents an interesting view of how virtual reality could be used in communication.  Surface freight is transported by huge, driver-less vehicles, programmed to reach their destinations.  Suborbital flights have dramatically shortened global travel times.  Cool stuff.

The main theme of the book is whether our genetic code, our physical appearance, our sex, etc.  define who we are or whether the situations of our birth and upbringing play a larger role.  Nature vs. nurture.  The theme would be hard to miss, since the subject is examined from almost every conceivable angle over the novel’s 500+ pages.

In the end, I thought that the novels flaws outweighed the “wow”.  The main flaw for me are the numerous and endless arguments between characters of the “You think you know me? You don’t my special brand of suffering!” variety – all intended to drive that main theme home with a giant ham fist.  I wanted more wow.

Count Rushdie

There is some kind of vampire book coming out today for kids or tweens and/or moms or something like that.  Bookstores everywhere are apparently having midnight parties to celebrate the release.  Wordsmiths is having a Black and Red Prom with acoustic goth music by Ferosha Akoustika (the band formerly known as The Wayne Fishell Experiment).  Across Decatur Square, The Little Shop of Stories will be hosting their own Twilight Party as well.  I think there are going to be a lot of young vampires milling around the Square tonight.  Mrs. Got Books has read all of the Twilight Series books and will definitely be there.  I haven’t read any of the books yet, but I loved that one guy on Sesame Street.

These guys have got to be related.

In other news, the longlist for the Booker Prize was announced this week.  Big surprise – Count Sir Salman Rushdie made the cut.  I think that even if he hadn’t released a novel this year, his grocery list might have still made it. The actual big surprise on the list is Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith, which I am told is a straight up thriller.  Netherland is the most likely to end up in my TBR pile.

Here are the twelve books that made the first cut:

• The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
• Girl in a Blue Dress by Gaynor Arnold
• The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
• From A to X by John Berger
• The Lost Dog by Michelle de Kretser
• Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
• The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
• The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
• Netherland by Joseph O’Neill
• The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
• Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
• A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

Also: Sir Salman is interviewed (podcast) on KCRW’s Bookworm.